The Daring Bakers' Challenge: Chocolate Pavlova with White Chocolate Strawberry Mascarpone Mousse and Mascarpone Cream

Chocolate Pavlova with White Chocolate Strawberry Mascarpone Mousse and Mascarpone Cream

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

Another month, another challenge. I was very pleased with this one. We were challenged to make chocolate pavlovas! It was my premiere. I've never made pavlovas before. Everything was quite o.k. except the pavlova "meringue". I followed the recipe step by step, but it kept falling - it wasn't fluffy at all. So I tried another batch with less cocoa powder. The meringue was "tougher", but still quite runny. I didn't have the strength to make yet another batch, because I was afraid of it would not be o.k. again. Plus what would I do with so huge lot of meringue?
So I tried to shape the second batch into hearts. Eventually it wasn't that bad, but they were pretty flat. But nevermind, I'd say mine were much more real meringues than pavlovas, because they were nothing but crunchy.
I made the Creme Anglaise the same day as pavlovas. I liked it pretty much, so I had tough times with making myself not eat it all. Fortunately I had overeaten sooner that day, otherwise there wouldn't be any creme anglaise left :)
Then I continued with the mascarpone cream. At first I wanted it to be strawberry flavoured, but I didn't want to "destroy" its creamy flavour so I let it be.
My mascarpone white chocolate mousse was supposed to be pink in color. To make it happen I used pureed strawberries instead of Grand Marnier. Well, it didn't affected the color at all. Now I'm a little sad I didn't add more of them, but still I'm afraid the mousse would be runny with more strawberries. However, when it's decorated with strawberries all these minus points are lost, because of the freshness and sweetness of them :)

The Daring Bakers' Challenge: Piece Montée (Croquembouche)

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

The Original Recipe Source: The recipes I am using for this month’s challenge come from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and were originally created by famed pastry chef, Nick Malgieri.The recipe for caramel cream filling is adapted from Martha Stewart.

And here it comes - my second challenge in The Daring Bakers group! I liked this one much more than the previous, because I liked the food much more and also the preparation, itself, seemed to me to be more "colourful". However, this French "cake" which name means something like "crunch in the mouth" truly is delightful. I decided to make a caramel cream filling, coffee pastry cream and chocolate pastry cream.

Strawberry Whisky Ice Cream

Here's a very easy summer refreshing recipe or when you want something cold. I had made this ice cream, because my she-friend arrived to visit me. I needed something fast but tasty, too. The ice cream is light and extremely tasty. A perfect sweet night treat!

Banana Cocktail

Hello :) This time I have a very easy recipe for a banana cocktail. Once again I had a huge taste for bananas a not too much time. So I did this minute-thing . This cocktail should be drunk very fast when made, because bananas turns quickly kinda black and in this case there's no difference. You can experiment with spices in this cocktail, which pretty cool. Whatever you add, it'll turn out wonderful. You can't go wrong here. While I was drinking, my pet - a rat - wanted to taste the cocktail, too. I gave it a little and I had to put it back to it's cage, because it'd drink up the whole huge glass :)

Blueberry Roll

Today's no.1 is this luscious blueberry roll. This roll is filled with blueberries. I've decided to make a roll because my last one was an absolute disaster. It was all fluid and liquid and not at all thickened. So this is the reason. By the way this was just perfect :) Past tense because it's not any more - it's already eaten :D

Judases (Jidase)

 
Easter is coming and in my country almost everybody bakes these traditional buns - Jidase (transalted to English - Judases). They are baked on Maundy Thursday in the Czech Republic - that's where I live. This sweet pastry is supposed to symbolize the ropes the apostle Judas hanged himself on aftter betraying Jesus. That's the explanation for their name. They are eaten for breakfast, brunch or lunch in czech families. Traditionally they're served with honey and/or butter and, of course, they're the best when still hot and warm.
Well, truth to be said, I made them for the first time today, but they turned out to be just great. Next time I'd add more sugar though, and lemon rind, too - its flavour wasn't too strong.

Strawberry Baked Pancakes

 
Hello everybody :) Today I've got fantastic strawberry pancakes for you.I made them for lunch and it's pretty fast when it comes to preparation. I mean it takes about an hour including baking but it's totally worth it! Once again I had a huge amount of frozen strawberries - like I'm gonna have them forever :) The pancakes are great. You could eat them without any other stuff but well, that's not the best. They are soft but with a strong taste at the same time. And plus strawberries - like the seventh heaven in your mouth.